Involving children in household chores and why is it important

More and more families are hiring a maid or two or even more to help with mainly household chores and taking care of elderly or children. But getting a maid is not as easy as 123. There are many factors to consider, for example:
– is the agency reliable
– will she and the family get along
– will she be able to meet your expectations
– her nationality
– her background
– does she has any background
– language barrier
– conduct all the medical tests you can afford
– etc…

Nonetheless you considered all the factors, went through the hiring process and you got your family a maid. You feel such a relief that you have got such a great helper to do all the work. You and you children are able to spend time doing other things that you like. Sounds great?

Truly speaking, with a maid in the household, do you think you will make your child/children to do housework? Highly unlikely. You would rather spend the time and money on things that can bring your child’s success. For instance, enrichments. Since you have paid for someone to take care of the household chores, why would you want to train your child/children to do it? But, do you know that household chores have great beneficial factors for your child/children especially when it is started at an early age?

Household chores for children provides a sense of responsibility and mastery. Children who started doing household chores at an early age tends to have better relationships with people around them. Getting children involved also instill them the importance of contributing to the family, showing compassion and responsive to other’s needs. Household chores may seem boring to many but if you demonstrate how to do it properly and telling your child/children why we need to do it, your child/children will “join in”.

For young children, try to make it fun! Household chores can be fun too! Here are some tips for you on how to make your household chore fun.

Laundry:
When the smarties saw me putting in the dirty laundry into the washing machine. That’s when they start removing the dry clothes from the hanger and getting ready for the freshly washed clothes to be hanged to dry. Do you notice that this also enhances their motor skills? They helped to fold the clothes as well after they are done removing it from hangers and pegs.

Laundry is done and this is how they deliver the clothes to the drying area and they work together to get the job done. Mei mei unload the clothes and gor gor deliver it to the drying area.

Changing of bed sheet:
Bedsheet may seems difficult but fret not. We made it fun! When it comes to putting on the bed sheet mei mei will always pretend that she’s in the ocean. When I flipped or tried to spread the bed sheet, she will quickly run under it, singing “Under the sea!”.

Removing of pillow case, we have another song too! This time is Chinese song:”拔萝卜“. We sang and we pulled the pillow case out!

Preparing pizza for lunch:
So what is gor gor doing at the mean time. He helped to wipe the tables and later preparing pizza lunch for us. Easy peasy!

By the time, the basic household chores for the day is done, we were super hungry. Thanks to gor gor who was well prepared to satisfy our tummies after all the “hard” work.

So now do you think household chores is boring or think that your child/children can’t handle? Don’t under estimate them. They can do it. Just need to find chores that they can manage and slowly progress to more difficult tasks at a later stage, they will definitely be on the road to success because they:
– are able to take up responsibility
– know how to build relationship with people around them
– know what happiness is about
– have the sense of mastery
– know how to show empathy/compassion
– know how to be responsive
– know how to be self-sufficient

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2 thoughts on “Involving children in household chores and why is it important”

When we lived in Peru, we had a maid because that was giving another mother a much needed job. We set limits however and gave our children chores that our maid was not to do for them. It worked for us and provided a great balance. We even had times where we would do the dinner dishes (together as a family) for our maid to give her a break. I have to admit, having a maid was really nice! My house was always visitor-ready. But, you are right, chores are beneficial for children. Great post! 🙂

Great to know that you had a great balance! Yes, having a maid doesn’t mean all bad. It helps a lot, just that we have to be aware that at times we still have to do things on our own including the children and not leaving everything to the maid. I have taught children before who don’t even know how to flush the toilet when they were told to clean up the area because they have maid to do it for them. Thanks so much for the comment and the thumbs up! 😉